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After spending several years in social services, Nicole has finally followed her lifelong dream of being a full-time writer. In addition to her work for The Hudsucker, Nicole is also a staff writer for Womanista. An avid comic book fan, BBQ aficionado, professional makeup artist and first-time mom, Nicole can be found exploring Kansas City rich history when she's not blogging about suburban life at Suburban Flamingo.

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You are here:Home»The FlashBack Special Edition: Arrow – ‘The Brave and the Bold’

The FlashBack Special Edition: Arrow – ‘The Brave and the Bold’

The Flash is DC’s television adaptation of the comic book of the same name. It airs Tuesday nights at 8/7 Central on The CW. Our writer, Nicole Drum recaps the series each week updating you on the latest episode here in The FlashBack.

Hello Flash Fans! Welcome to the special Arrow recap this week! On Tuesday night we had the first part of the Flash/Arrow crossover event and last night we got the Arrow half. It was fun to see the Arrow in Central City. I’m hoping it’s as much fun to see The Flash in Starling!

So our episode opens up as so many Arrow episodes do, in the past. Oliver (presumed dead by all of his family and friends back home) is in Hong Kong. There Amanda Waller, head of a group called A.R.G.U.S. (think Flash’s Nerd Squad, only with more crazy people and less science) introduces our badly in need of a haircut and a shower Ollie to some guy named Cheng. Oliver is supposed to be getting some information about a bomb out of the guy interrogation style. Oliver is still sort of soft in regards to doing what needs to be done. This Oliver has a conscience and the Cheng dude goads him pretty solidly about it, saying he won’t be able to do what he has to do. Turns out Cheng is quite right. Oliver stalls too long and that bomb he is supposed to be finding out about explodes. Waller is, understandably, angry. She gives Oliver a solid talking to about his failure to do what he needed to do and tries to explain to him that there are some people who can’t be reached by logic and reason. To paraphrase another DC character, some people just want to watch the world burn. Waller also tells Oliver he needs to work on torture…and brings in someone else with information they need so Oliver gets a chance to do just that.

And now we’re back in present day where Oliver has showered and gotten a haircut! So Arsenal (Roy, just in case you didn’t know,) Arrow, and Diggle roll up on the house that they think belongs to the villain they had gone to Central City to get an assist on, Captain Boomerang. Of course, the house isn’t just a house. It’s rigged to blow! The villain is totally not there…but an A.R.G.U.S. team shows up and has words with our heroes. Of course.

Image Credit: CW

Also of course? Cisco and Caitlin show up at Felicity’s work, Palmer Technologies. They want their pal to take them to the Arrow lair. It’s totally legit, you see, because Caitlin did say that she was going to help solve the DNA sample from Canary’s murder. Cisco, of course, is too busy being a kid in a candy store. He’s totally having a geek moment over the Arrow’s weapons. Oliver is super not happy and totally uncomfortable with all these cheerful people in his lair of despair. Ollie is cute when he’s brooding.

So Captain Boomerang, aka George “Digger” Harkness (played by Nick Tarabay) didn’t die in his rigged house. Instead our baddie rolls up on A.R.G.U.S. and pretty much just strolls right in without much issue. Diggle just so happens to be talking to Lyla, his wife/ex-wife/baby mama/something. Team Arrow is on it. Arsenal and Arrow head off on their bikes, but time is of the essence and bikes aren’t all that fast! Wait, what’s that? Is that a red streak? The Flash is here! Now, he’s simply zooming towards the city proper so our archer friends do arrive first, but it’s pretty clear that the guys are out…gunned as it were. Arrows are not really good against crazy boomerangs so that is soon abandoned for actual fighting. It’s a pretty great fight scene, even if it’s not going well for Arrow. He’s about to meet a pointy end when Flash gets there right on time (glad you weren’t late today, Barry) and saves the day. Yay Barry!

Arrow and Arsenal aren’t chopped to bits by the boomerangs and Flash is now there to assist. How is it that this Boomerang guy could just more or less waltz his way into A.R.G.U.S. anyway? That place is kind of like a cross between Dr. Creepy Jeans’ metahuman prison and a Soviet gulag. Lyla clues us in here: Boomerang used to work for them. He was part of Task Force X which we more commonly know as the Suicide Squad. When things went south with one of their missions the entire time was executed remotely (as is A.R.G.U.S. fashion.) Except, it seems Boomerang. Lovely. Oh A.R.G.U.S you really are a more aggressive version of S.T.A.R. Waller and Creepy Jeans forever.

So we have our villain and we know his history. We clearly need a little bit of fun and exposition in our episode now so back at the Arrow lair Barry shows off for the team (that salmon ladder bit, holy crap. Holy crap.) His enthusiasm also results in him revealing his identity to Lyla, who I guess now is fully in the now about all the superheroing going on and the players. Useful. Barry just wants to belong, you know, so he’s there to help and prove he’s been listening to Oliver and hey, he wants to help them catch this guy so they are able to use Barry’s powers to rebuild those exploding boomerangs. Doing so gives them a lead on the villain, but also tracks to Captain Lance. Lance once arrested one of Boomerang’s buddies, some guy named Klaus Markos who was running an identity theft ring for ye olde Russian mob.

Mobsters. Exploding boomerangs. Salmon ladders. Yes. This episode. Yes. Time to take down some mobsters. The combined team heads off to do a little teamwork makes the dream work. Flash is fast, though. He beats Team Arrow inside the building, knocks the bad guys out, and zip-ties them into submission all before our slower supes get inside. Speed is not the only difference between the heroes. Flash takes Arrow to task about his general interrogation methods. Grumpy pants Arrow doesn’t like that and tells Flash to leave. Flash doesn’t leave and ends up taking down more bad guys. They discover that Boomerang isn’t there. Why? Oh, he’s at the Arrow lair. Seems he needs to see Lyla about some revenge and Diggle’s lady takes one of those nasty boomerangs to the chest (what is it with Arrow and hurting/killing mothers? This isn’t Disney, people!) Felicity manages to chase Boomerang away, but Lyla is in bad shape.

So the day has been crap, clearly. Felicity and the Nerd Squad go to the club with Roy. Diggle is at his lady’s side at the hospital. Oliver is spilling his soul to Barry. He’s not handling how the bad things he does in the name of justice are impacting him very well. Barry tries to be encouraging and reminds Oliver that his heart is in the right place. I’m not sure Oliver is buying it, but he’s glad to have a friend. It feels like a decent place to end the episode, but we’ve still got time left on the clock. There’s more. Felicity tracks down Boomerang so Flash and Arrow go after him one more time.

They catch up with Boomerang who informs the heroes that he has planted five bombs all through the city (keeping with the fine tradition of blowing up Starling? Eh.) Flash has ninety seconds to track these bombs down before they blow so Flash zips off and employs the help of the team back at the Arrow lair to find the bombs. Arrow is left to face Boomerang alone, but he does better this time around and manages to get him around the throat with some sort of arrow thing. Flash gets the team to help him with the bombs by getting them all to one location so they can be deactivated at once. Meanwhile, Boomerang is echoing our opening flashback. Like Cheng, that other crazy guy with a bomb, Boomerang is goading Arrow. He’s trying to get him to go full monster, but Arrow doesn’t do it. He trusts his team. And it works. Trust wins this day. Arrow, and Oliver, are less of a monster. Must have been the pep talk from Barry earlier.

So the bad guy is in jail (they stuck him next to Slade. Is that wise?) and Lyla wakes up in the hospital. She’s gonna be okay! And Diggle proposes (oh so they were still ex-spouses, okay). She says yes so now I’m hoping for an Arrow wedding sometime soon. Caitlin is working on that DNA sample, but realizes that she will need to go back to her own lab to complete the work. Cisco makes Arrow a fancy new outfit and Oliver sets up an outfit and mannequin for Flash next time he comes over to play. All’s well that ends well, and we know these two will play again soon. And then it’s time for everyone to go home, but not before Barry reminds Oliver he can be an inspiration, Oliver challenges Barry…and then shoots arrows at him?

Thus ends our cross-over event. Next week Barry comes face to face with his mother’s murderer and Oliver faces off with Ra’s al Ghul. It’s gonna be a bad time, kids. Thanks for joining me for this special edition of the FlashBack! See you all next week!

What did you think of the cross-over event? Do you ship Amanda Waller and Dr. Creepy Jeans as much as I do now? Let me know in comments!